Saturday, 23 February 2008

Memory Lane

This is the new look Ormskirk station, as announced by Merseytravel, and frankly I'm in two minds. I am always, always pro-investment in the network; if they announced tomorrow that Bebington station would be replaced by robots with death rays I would be violently pro. But Ormskirk is where I studied, is where I lived for 3 years; Ormskirk is a place I am so affectionate towards, I have deliberately avoided visiting it in my MerseyTart antics because I want to make it a special occasion. My first Wednesday afternoon at Edge Hill College/University College/University, I was at this station requesting a ticket to "Moorfields", having acquired an A-Z and decided that was the best station in Liverpool to visit on my first week ever in the North.

The new look is fabulous, both in keeping with what is there and progressive; but I see that CGI image and a little part of me harks back to trips into Liverpool with drunk student mates, to ventures into the city when I was a new student in the North, to acquiring and losing boyfriends for the first time ever, to weekly trips back to Ormskirk from the (eleven years and counting) bf's to experience Edge Hill student life again. I am sad to see it go. I must visit before it's lost. Before I lose the chance to buy a last minute pack of chewing gum from the kiosk, or to pass my ticket over to the jolly guys on the inspection gate. It's a part of me that is very, very important; pivotal, in fact. Say Ormskirk to me and you are saying my best friends.